NI-number redaction is the removal of full National Insurance numbers from a court filing under the DPA 2018. anonym.plus finds every NINO on your device and masks it, so the document no longer exposes the identifier.
When this applies
A filing may repeat the NINO across exhibits, headings, and quotes. You must mask each one under the DPA 2018 before the document joins the court file.
How anonym.plus handles it
- Open the papers in anonym.plus on your device.
- Local OCR reads scanned pages that print the identifier.
- The tool flags every NINO in the prefix-digits-suffix form.
- Apply Mask or Redact to hide the full value.
- Confirm no full value remains anywhere.
- Save the clean papers locally.
What you need to provide
- The filing and its exhibits (PDF, DOCX, scan).
- The Mask or Redact operator for the NINO.
- Optional batch for many exhibits at once.
PII entity types detected
| Category | anonym.plus entity type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Identifiers | UK_NINO | QQ 12 34 56 C → [NINO] |
| Identifiers | UK_UTR | UTR number → masked |
| Identifiers | UK_PASSPORT | passport no. → masked |
| Names | PERSON | John Mercer → [PARTY] |
| Dates | DATE_TIME | DOB 1979 → [DOB] |
| Financial | UK_BANK_NUMBER | acct 4412 → [ACCOUNT] |
Compliance achieved
- Meets the DPA 2018 duty to protect the NINO in a filing.
- Catches related tax references (UTRs) in the same pass.
- Offline work keeps the numbers off any server.
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Limitations & cautions
A NINO can appear inside a scanned image where OCR misreads a character. Check the flags on image pages so no full value slips through. The tool masks what it finds; verify the result.
Frequently asked questions
Should the full NI number ever stay in a filing?
Rarely. The DPA 2018 expects unnecessary identifiers to be minimised, so anonym.plus masks or redacts the full identifier in one pass across the document.
Does it also catch tax references?
Yes. UTRs and similar tax references fall under the same data-protection duty and are flagged alongside the NINO.
Can it read the digits printed on exhibit images?
Yes. Local OCR reads the image, then masks the value. Always verify faint scans.